Beckii Cruel at the London MCM Expo

Everyone's revving up for the London MCM Expo at the end of the month from the 27th to 29th May 2011. The good folks at the event have sent us details about their latest guest, Beckii Cruel, the schoolgirl from the Isle of Man who became an internet sensation and then a Japanese Pop Idol. She was also the subject of a BBC Three TV documentary. She'll be appearing on the indoor and outdoor stages of the Expo on Saturday 28th May 2011.

London Barbican July 2011 Anime Screenings

London anime fans have got a lot to look forward over at the Barbican. They'll be showing the latest Ghibli movie - Arrietty on Wednesday 6th July 2011 at 7pm which is the UK Premier and on Saturday 9th July 2011 at 11 am (all adults must be accompanied by a child to this screening).

London Lolita Through the Looking Glass Exhibition

London Lolitas are in for a treat on Saturday 14th May 2011, where they should head over to the Resistance Gallery, 265 Poyser St, Bethnal Green, E2 9RF from 1pm until late for the Lolita Through the Looking Glass Exhibition

The event will celebrate Lolita fashion and its offshoots. Artwork from our very own Wing Yun Man will be on display too (she does the Otaku News Post Cards and wallpaper).

They'll also have other events such as a swap and buy sale, along with DJs throughout the day, a photo booth, plus a fashion show and a panel discussion.

Maid Cafe Event in London May 2011

Are you in London on Sunday 22nd May 2011 and are looking to be served by Maids in a Maid Cafe? Well, head over to the Jetlag Bar on 125 Cleveland Street W1T 6QB, from 2pm until 7pm for where Oh My Lord! will offer a relaxing Sunday afternoon to eat and drink. Buy tickets on-line.

Aid for Japan - London - 15th May 2011

We've been sent details about Aid for Japan an up coming charity event in London on Sunday 15th May 2011. It's to raise funds for the victims of the recent earthquake.

It'll be at -
Conway Hall
25 Red Lion Square
London
WC1R 4RL

Nearest Tube station is Holborn.

They'll be holding a selection of workshops focusing on Japanese culture, including the Tea Ceremony, performances a Kimono Fashion show, a cosplay show, along with with a Shibuya and Harajuku fashion show. There'll be a manga drawing workshop too.

Japanese food and drink will also be available for attendees to buy on the day.

At Home in Japan - Beyond the minimal house symposium

In London on Saturday 14th May 2011 and looking for something educational to do? Well why not head over to the At Home in Japan - Beyond the minimal house symposium at the The Geffrye Museum. It's set to start at 10 am and run to 4:30pm. coffee, light lunch and an exhibition tour is included in the ticket price. This forms part of the At Home in Japan - Beyond the Minimal House special exhibition.

Heart Japan Charity Event - 20th April 2011

London based fans of Japan looking to have fun and raise money for charity should keep Wednesday 20th April 2011 free for Heart Japan. The event is set to run from 6:30pm until 11pm at Vibe Bar on Brick Lane.

Apart from a rare chance to see an alternative side to anime, what makes the event so special is the ticket pricing. There is no set price for admission, you pay what you want with all proceeds going toward the Japan Society Tohoku Earthquake Relief Fund.

Japanese Maid Cafes in London Day - Sunday 27th March 2011

Looking for something to do in London this weekend? Well Sunday 27th March 2011 seems to be London Maids day, with not one, but two separate Maid Cafes running on the same day. Both events will have Japanese Maids.

Then at Sofra in Covent Garden we have Japanese Maid's Cafe London. They'll have 4 sittings, 12pm, 2pm, 4pm or 6pm. WOTA London VJ namimo will be there to provide some simulation to the eyes and ears. The new comers claim to be the first of it's kind in London, even though Oh My Lord started 4 months before.

Both events promise to donate proceeds to Japan's Earthquake and Tsunami relief.

Correction - Since posting this article, the people behind the Japanese Maids Cafe have confirmed the reasoning behind being called the first of it's kind in London. They'd like to emphasise that they are the first Japanese Maid Cafe in London. They highlight that all their maids, VJ namimo and the owner of the event are all Japanese. While in comparison Oh My Lord! has maids of different nationalities.

Genki Gear London Expo Official May 2011 Exclusive T-shirts

Although it's just over 2 months away, things have started to rev up for the May Edition of the London MCM Expo, which is set to run on 27th to 29th May 2011 at the ExCel London.

The creative t-shirt people Genki Gear have just unveiled the official exclusive designs for the May MCM Expo. This time instead of one design there are two differet designs available both in Unisex and Women's fitted tee styles and both available as limited editions on Pre-order only. The theme this time around is super heroes and zombies! The Pre-order is on the Genki Gear Site only until the 31st April 2011.

Leeds Central Library - Otaku Attack March 2011

UK readers looking for something to do in Leeds on Saturday 19th March 2011? Well, head over the Leeds Central Library from 12 Midday to 3pm where the talented Kate Brown will be running the Otaku Attack Manga Art Workshop.

It's free to all, you'll be treated to anime screenings, Japanese food and lots of other treats too.

AmeCon seek Events Officer

The great folks at UK convention AmeCon have sent us details of a volunteer role that needs filling. They're looking for a new Events Officer.

Apart from being able to pay something back to anime fandom, this is a great opportunity to participate in a large UK convention, see it's inner workings and meet others who are passionate about anime, manga and all other things otaku love.

Manga Dreams at the Hamiltons Gallery in London

At the Hamiltons Gallery in London from Thursday 27th January to Saturday 5th March 2011, runs the Manga Dreams exhibition. It's heavily manga-induced photography, brought to you by Jonathan Anderson and Edwin Low.

WOTA London EP:9 - 26th February 2011

London based fans of Japanese themed clubbing are in for a treat when WOTA London will return. It's set for Saturday 26th February 2011 Juno@Shoreditch, near Old Street and Liverpool Street Tube stations.

The fun's set to start at 7pm and will go onto midnight. Highlights include Karaoke, along with a Paper, Rock Scissors competition (Remember, paper, rock, rock, scissors, paper, paper, scissors is the winning combination).

Edinburgh: Filmhouse (March 26th-27th)
Birmingham: Appearing at The Electric Cinema as part of Flatpack Film Festival (March 26th)
Leeds: Appearing at The Hyde Park Cinema as part of Leeds Young People’s Film Festival (April 2nd)
Bexley: Appearing as part of BAM 2011
Dublin: Appearing at Cineworld as a part of Cinemagic (May 13th-15th)
Dumfries: Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre (June)
Newcastle: Tyneside Cinema (Date TBC)
London: The Barbican (July)

The films being screened will vary at each location. They do have a great line up including:
Redline
Summer Wars
King of Thorn
Laputa Castle in the Sky
Sword of the Stranger
The Disappeance of Haruhi Suzumiya

Bunkasai Japanese Festival and the European Cosplay Gathering in London - March 2011

UK based Cosplayers looking to be part of the European Cosplay scene will be pleased to hear about the European Cosplay Gathering. Known as ECG for short, this new cosplay competition will have it's finals at the Japan Expo in Paris. What makes the ECG a bit different is that cosplay performance is just as important as the costume.

The UK selection of the Competition will be held at the Bunkasai Japanese Festival on Saturday 5th March 2011 at Conway Hall Red Lion Square, Holborn London. Near Holborn tube station.

Bunkasai has an interesting selection of events, including Martial Arts demonstrations, Taiko Drumming workshops, Japanese Language lessons, a lecture on the Tea Ceremony, Food Tasting, Sake Tasting and much more.

Tickets are £5 on the door (with Children under 10 free). Or you can buy a single ticket for £3.50, or 4 tickets for £10 on their website.

Japan Underground February 2011 Tour Dates

UK fans of Japanese music will be pleased to hear that the good people at Japan Underground have announced the February 2011 tour dates for their club nights. London, Birmingham, Brighton and Nottingham are all set to for nights fun, music karaoke and Harajuku fashion.

They've also got a pre-tour party in London on Tuesday 11th January 2011.

Manga Drawing workshop in London Saturday 20th November 2010

Every now and again at Otaku News we get e-mails from our readers with questions. Normally we can answer these questions (or at least point them in the right direction). Today we got one that we couldn't answer straight away.

Grand Cosplay Ball 2010 Details

London based cosplayers will be excited to hear about the Grand Cosplay Ball which returns for it's third year. This years theme is Arabian Nights and it's set to run on Sunday, 28th November at Clapham Grand Hotel. The fun starts at 7pm until 1am. Expect lots of belly dancing, sword swallowing and even an Arabian Bazaar.

The Guest of Honour is Metroid cosplayer Jenni Kallberg (aka Pixelninja) from Sweden.

Over 18's only. Tickets are £18 from their website, or in-store at Tokyo Toys London branch at the Trocadero in Picadilly Circus.

Anime at Thought Bubble: The Leeds Sequential Art Festival 2010

Anime fans who can get to Leeds from 18th to 21st November 2010 are in a for a real treat. Thought Bubble and Leeds International Film Festival have some great anime features to enjoy. Including some European Premieres such as Mardock Scramble: The First Compression (review here), Gintama The Movie, along with some great anime titles you should see if you haven't already. -

Mardock Scramble: The First Compression
Gintama The Movie
One Piece: Strong World
Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance
Redline
Interstella 5555: The 5tory Of The 5ecret 5tar 5ystem

Normally at this stage we'd cherry pick a title or two for suggestion as to what to watch, but they're all good, Interstella 5555 is always worth watching one more time too. ^_-

There's also some live action adventures with - Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City.

The Thought Bubble Festival are offering £20 passes for a day, or Individual tickets for £6.50/£5.00.

Hyper Japan 2010 Report

For Japanese culture fans, October began with a bang at Hyper Japan, a new and highly anticipated event on the UK otaku calendar for 2010. Hosted by Eat-Japan (the number one site for Japanese food, sushi and sake), the show was a sensational success, drawing in excess of 15,000 visitors over the 3 days, a remarkable feat for what was the debut of this cultural festival. The event was located in the heart of London's Shoreditch at Brick Lane, an area well known for its offbeat character and for the eclectic, hip and chic. Standing in the line with the eager attendees, the atmosphere was alive with the building excitement as cosplayers, anime fans and the culturally curious all assembled to enjoy a different class of convention. The preshow campaign, organised and delivered by a Japanese enterprise was loaded with ample incentive for any fan of Japan to take a look at what the exhibitors had to offer. I, in my cosplay guise as Queen's Blade's spectral maid Airi, lined up with the happy crowds all eager to meet and greet, eat and shop! After conquering the queue and ascending the staircase in my heels, a veritable treasure trove was to be found, serving the many delights of Japanese culture and cuisine.

Zipangu Fest UK programme announced

Those in Bethnal Green should keep Tuesday 23rd November 2010 free for a special event - Nippon Year Zero: Japanese Experimental Film from the 1960s‐1970s at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club.

Things then kick off on Wednesday 24th November 2010 on Brick Lane at Cafe 1001 along with the UK premiere of Pyuupiru 2001 - 2008, plus a selection of shorts and a screening of Rackgaki: Japanese Graffiti.

London Barbican Cosplay Extravaganza - November 2010

While cosplays in London will be busy gearing up for the London MCM Expo this weekend, you shouldn't forget that there's more fun to be had in London the weekend after. On Saturday 6th November 2010 The Barbican will be having a special late night event - the Cosplay Extravaganza.

They'll be a Cosplay Parade, workshops, a Goth Loli Fashion Show, Video Game Tournaments, some live J-Pop and Japanese Punk. Resident anime expert Helen McCarthy will be there to give a talk on Cosplay: A Short History (as well as being an anime expert Helen's also the author of Manga Cross-Stitch and is knowledgeable about cosplay to say the least).

The event is set to run from 6pm until 1am.

Entry to all the Foyer Events is free. This does not cover entry to exhibition, theatre or Kamikaze Girls screening.

Judges Named For Euro Cosplay Final - October 2010

The good folks at the London MCM Expo have sent us details about the Euro Cosplay Finals, which will be held at the London MCM Expo on Saturday 20th October 2010. The judges have now been announced. They've picked a selection of expert cosplayers to reside over the finalists.

Additionally the Expo launches a new cosplay zone - Totally Cosplay, dedicated to everything a cosplayer would be interested in, including competitions, panels, workshops and a cosplay stage.

Zipangu Fest - Japanese film festival details

UK fans of Japanese cinema will be pleased to hear about Zipangu Fest. A UK-wide festival devoted to Japanese Cinema. It's set to start from Tuesday 23rd to Thursday 28th November 2010 in London's East End, before touring the country.

Japan Underground London Club Night November 2010

London based fans of Japanese themed clubbing are in for a treat on Wednesday 17th November 2010. A new club night is set to launch at the King Pin Suite in Bloomsbury. It'll start at 7pm and run until 2 am. Called Japan Underground the first club night will have a samurai theme to tie in with the launch of Sengoku Basara.

There'll be a nice selection of live music, karaoke rooms and much more fun and games too.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is a real delight to watch, if you haven't seen it already it's worth making the effort of going to see it. As always with popular events we suggest booking early to avoid disappointment.

Free Entry to October 2010 London MCM for BlazBlue Cosplayers

London based cosplayers who like BlazBlue are in luck this month, PQube and Zen United (the good folks behind BlazBlue's European release) have teamed up to offer free entry to BlazBlue cosplayers at this the 2010 October MCM Expo in London.

Anime companies, cosplay and other geeky entertainment will be well represented at the London MCM Expo. They've just sent us details that'll interest gamers too, PQube in conjunction with Zen United will be at the expo and will give gamers a hands on chance to try out BlazBlue: Continuum Shift.

Sci-Fi-London Oktoberfest 2010

As is tradition in October Sci-Fi-London will be screening a great selection of anime as part of their Oktoberfest. The festival starts on Thursday 14th October and ends early in the morning of Sunday 17th October 2010 (this is because of their great Saturday all nighters).

Friday 15th at 7:30pm they'll be screening Technotise: Edit & I, which is billed as Serbia's first animated feature film crossing Ghost in the Shell with Waltz with Bashir.

Saturday night from 10:30pm is when the fun starts for Studio Ghibli fans, with an all-nighter with the following features -
Spirited Away
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
The Cat Returns
Howl's Moving Castle

At the same time at 10:30pm there is an anime all-nighter as an alternative, screening 2 Ghibli features plus Eden of the East -
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
The Cat Returns
Eden of the East

As always with great events we suggest you book early to avoid disappointment.

London Barbican Aspects of Japanese Cinema Season

We've mentioned it before, but it's always worth being reminded about from Tuesday 19th October to Sunday 19th December 2010 the Barbican in London will be running an Aspects of Japanese Cinema season. It's also worth noting that the screening of Kenji Mizoguchi’s The Water Magician is accompanied, for the first time in the UK, with traditional benshi narration and live music on a koto.

Benshi narration is the traditional form of Japanese silent film story-telling: the performer, or benshi, stands beside the screen and reads the intertitles as well as voicing the characters and commenting on the action.

The koto is the traditional 13-stringed zither of Japan whose shape has been likened to a crouching dragon. The history of the instrument spans at least twelve centuries during which time its form has changed little. It is made from the wood of the paulownia tree (or ‘Royal Empress tree’) and generally plucked with plectra worn on the right hand.

For those interested in the season, we suggest you look at our previous post, about the highlights (which is pretty much the whole season)!

London MCM Expo October 2010 T-shirt Designed by Genki Gear

The London MCM Expo is on it's way. Everyone's getting revved up for the weekend of 29th to 31st October 2010, and Genki Gear are no exception. They've just launched the official London MCM Expo October 2010 T-shirt. The exclusive design is available to pre-order now on the Genki Gear Website.

Square Enix, Cosplay, Sushi and More! HYPER JAPAN London 2010

The good folks at Hyper Japan have sent us more details about their London based event on Friday 1st October until Sunday 3rd October 2010. Square Enix will be there selling goodies. They've got a cosplay competition too, with a chance to win a trip to Japan. Plus lots of lovely food! Soy sauce experts Kikkoman will be there too, issuing a sushi challenge.

London Matsuri Cosplay Competition Details

We've already covered details about Japan Matsuri in London at Spitalfields on Saturday 18th September 2010. We've just been sent a reminder that they'll also be hosting a cosplay competition on the canopy stage at 2:30pm.